Textbooks and Materials

Course Objectives

This course encourages students to reflect on the humanitarian, social,
and cultural aspects of computer and information technology.
These aspects include important issues: intellectual property, privacy,
security, reliability, and professional ethics.
We will also examine possible impact on the economic world and the way
people work.

Course Organization

The course meets four times a week.
Three of the meetings are devoted to lecture and discussion.
In these meetings class participation is expected.
The fourth meeting is devoted to in-class writing assignments based on
selected readings from S&T.

Topics and Readings

Computing background, Quinn Chapter 1

Introduction to ethics, Quinn Chapter 2

Networking and communication issues, Quinn Chapter 3

Intellectual property issues, Quinn Chapter 4

Privacy issues, Quinn Chapters 5 and 6

Security issues, Quinn Chapter 7

Reliability issues, Quinn Chapter 7

Professional ethics, Quinn Chapter 8

Other social issues, Quinn Chapter 9

For each of these topics, appropriate readings will be selected from
S&T.
The selected readings will be announced in the course calendar at least
one week in advance.
The Thursday 12:00 class meetings will be devoted to writing papers on
the selected readings.